Tobacco-stemming machine.



F. C. SCHOFIELD.

TOBACCO STEMMING MACHiNE.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT-22.19%.

Patented Nov. 26, 1918.

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F. C. SCHOFIELD.

TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINE.

. APPLICATION FILED SEPT-22 1,286,124.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

F. C. SCHOFIELD.

TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FiLD sEPT.22. 191a.

Patented Nov. 26, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3- Inuen tor:

Ewdgnicib C Sc/zyieZd F. C. SCHOFIELD.

TOBACCO SIEMMING MACHINE.

APPLICATION man saw-22. me.

1 ,286, 124:. Patented Nov. 26, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

Inventar.

rgdenick CZSc/zflield,

r in ear FRED ERICK C. SGHOFIELD, OF WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA, ASSIGNOR TO THE TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINE COMPANY, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, A CORPO- RATION OF DELAWARE.

TOBACCO-STEMMING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

.latented Nov. 26, 1918.

To all who met may concern.

Be it known'that I, FREDERICK C. SCI-IO- rIELn, of Winston-Salem, county of Forsyth, North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tobacco-Stemming Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The invention concerns among other features an improvement in the construetionof the gripper bars, the mounting of the stripper rolls and the cooperative relation between these parts, whereby one stripper roll may remain relatively fixed while the other roll only is moved to secure their separation for the passage of the gripper bars to and between the rolls along a rectilinear path. the stripping teeth on the relatively fixed roll, as well as on the movable roll, not being subjected to any crushing down contact from the gripper bars moving along said rectilinear path, because of features of structure and arrangement of which the invention consists as will be hereinafter pointed out with particularity in the appended claims. Other "features of invention also will be pointed out and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, I show in a portion of a tobacco stripping machine having invention embodied therein in one form, the stripping rolls being in their stripping relation. 1

Fig. 2 is a detail'view with the stripping rolls intheir separated relationandwith the gripper barsin the act of passingbetween them.

Fig. 3 is a sectionalview of the machine showing the preferred form of means for characters 1 and 2 indicate upper and lower stripping rolls covered with card teeth to H i i Figure 1 alongitudinal sectional v1ew of strip the blades from the stems of the tobacco leaves, and 3, l, indicate a pair of gripper bars which grip the leaf stems and draw them between the stripping rolls while the blades of the leaves are stripped therefrom by the teeth.

These gripper bars are mounted on suit able carriers which, in the particular example of my invention illustrated herein, consist of endless chains 5, 5 which pass around directing wheels 6, 7 and S, 9, this carrier mechanism being driven in any suitable wav well known in the art. The gripper bars are associated with trucks 10, 11, movable between guide bars 12 and 13 which hold the bars together with the gripper bars in proper relation to grasp the stems and transport the leaves through the machine in the arrow direction X. The stripper rollswhen in rotation move in the directions of the curved arrows but, the stripping rolls when acting to strip the leaf blades from the stem may be stationary in respect to any rotative movement.

A combination of elements somewhat like that thus far described has been known prior to my invention and in one form of such combination, one of the stripping rolls has been mounted in substantially fixed bearings and the separation of the rolls to permit the passage of the gripper bars has been effected by moving the other roll bodily away from the fixed one to provide the nec essary space through which the gripper bars passed. In this prior organization, however, the gripper bars, in passing the strip ping roll having the substantially fixed bearings, are deflected from 'a rectilinear path in order to permit them to pass over the fixed roll.

A later form of machine made provision for the movement of the clamping bars along a rectilinear path and without crushing the stripping teeth by efiiecting a bodily movement of both rolls in separating for the passage of said bars, the upper roll being lifted while the lower roll was simultaneously depressed to remove the teeth of each from the rectilinear path of the gripper bars.

I have discovered that only one stripping roll need be moved for the desired separation of the two rolls and the gripper bars may have a movement to and between the strip ping rolls along a rectilinear path and withat 1%, and is in substantially fixed, relation to the pathway traversed by the gripper bars and leaves, the teeth of said roll reaching up only high enough to perform their intended function upon the leaf blades in cooperation with the teeth of the upper roll 1.

To attain the object of my invention with a stripping roll having no separating movement imparted thereto in respect to the other stripping roll, I employ gripper bars of special construction and of special relative arrangement in respect to the plane of movement of the leaves and to the positions of the lower and upper rolls and, therefore, the gripper bars are constructed and arranged so as to lie wholly in a plane and traverse a rectilinear path above or substantially above the teeth of the lower stripping roll and without altering the plane of the path traversed bythe leaves for the strip ping action but, on the contrary, the construction and relative arrangement of the gripper bars is such that the leaves will be presented to the teeth of the lower roll in a manner to secure the highest degree ofpositiveness and accuracy. For this purpose the gripper bars may be of the form shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 7 in which their contiguous gripping surfaces start from the point z subs antially in the .plane of travel of the leaves relatively to the lower roll teeth and thence extend upwardly therefrom to, say, the point 2 considerably above the said plai thus providing gripping surfaces of suffic ent extent to securely grasp the butt ends of the stems for dragging them be tween the stripping rolls. The lower grip-- per bar 51- has a flat lower face lying substantially wholly in, or above, tlieplane of iu wcnient of the leaves and substantially above the upper ends of the lower roll teeth so that no crushing contact can take place between said lower bars and said teeth and yet the bars move along a l'QC'l'lllJi-FEU} path. The formation of the lower bars. as described, with the flat lower faces provides ample thickness of the bars for strength parts back from the point where the stem rmergcs from the bars in. the plane of the upper ends of the roll teeth. ll will. be understood. however, that the lower QIT'HFDPI' bar may be otherwise shaped in cross section and still provide strength and an extended gripping surface, said lower bar finding a backing against the upwardly. directed gripping part of the upperbar I The opposing faces of the gripper bars may be serrated, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, for a better gripping effect on the stems, or they may be provided with a rib and groove as in Fig. 7. The uppergripper bar has an inclined or curved upper face at it, along which the teeth of the upper stripping roll wipe in coming down to engage the blade at the pointy. In Figs. 1, 2 and 7 the upper stripping roll is shown directly above the lower roll, but in Figs. 3 and 6 the upper roll is set in advance of the lower roll so that their peripheries will engage at a point in advance of the vertical plane of the axis of the lower roll the plane in which they engage being substantially. at right angles to the inclined position of the leaf stem as it arrives at the rollers. This gives a more efiective stripping action than the arrangement shown in Fig. 7. Further, in Figs. 6 and 8 the opening between the gripper bars where the stem emerges from between them is in the plane of the bottom of the bars enabling stripping to 'con'm'ience by the lower roller directly at the point. where the stem emerges from the bars, and in begin ning the stripping the lower roll acts upon a portion of the stem which is backed by the projecting portion of the upper bar. This starts the stripping more effectively than is the case in Fig. 7, Where the stripping is indicated as taking place between yielding surfaces of the rolls.

Only the upper stripping roll is moved bodily to secure the separation for the passage of the gripping bars and for this purpose, in the example of my invention illustrated in Fig. 1, the said roll is mounted in arms, one ofwhich'is shown at 16 pivoted at 16 and having a tail piece 17 through which a rod 18 passes having a disk 19 bearing on a spring 20 which bears on the fixed frame at 21. The'rod 18 is screw threaded and is engaged by a nut 22 hearing on the tail piece 17 and by adjusting this nut and rod the pressure of the spring tending to force the upper stripping roller downwardly'may be varied. These arms are raised by cam levers 25 pivoted at 26 t0 the frame and having their free ends under the journals of the stripping roll. The cam arms or levers are raised by rolls 27 on the trucks 11 of the. lower gripper. barsoperating against the lower edges of the cam arms.

I prefer to employ the lower stripping roll as the non-separating one of the pair. but I do not limit myself in this respect. By employing bars having their gripping faces extending at an angle to the plane of move ment of the leaves, instead of coincident therewith, a firmer gripping effect on the leaf stem is secured for a given size of bar and a given stripping pressure applied thereto.

The leaves are placed by the operator upon a feed table, a part of which is indicated at 28 and with the butt ends of their stems resting against a stop 29 provided in any suitable manner as by a part of the frame. The lower carrier chain passes around in front of this stop and the leaves are engaged by the lower gripper bars or clamping devices and are lifted thereby so that the stems will be clamped between the upper and lower bars and thereafter these bars will traverse a rectilinear path to and through the space between the upper and lower stripping rolls and without bending or crushing down the teeth of the lower roll which is mounted in fixed bearings.

Clearer brushes or members may be employed at 23 to clear the stripping rolls of accumulations.

I prefer to secure the opening and closing of the rolls by the means shown in Figs. to 5. While the means shown in Fig. 1 is operative and effective certain objections thereto are avoided by the means in Figs. 3, 4. and 5. The objections to the mechanism of Fig. 1 is that strain is brought upon the chain and it is found in practice that the rollers 27 that operate upon the cam arms 25 wear rapidly, and soon become flattened. thus increasing the resistance and strain and requiring more power for operating the machine. In Figs. 3, 4 and 5 I employ means independent of the gripping bar carrier for opening the rolls consisting of cam mechanism with connections to the arms 16 in which the upper rolls are journaled.

In Fig. 3 the drive shaft 6 has thereon a gear a which drives the upper gear a which in turn meshes with the lower gear a, said gear a driving the shafts carrying the chain sprockets. The drive shaft 6 has a gear a driving gear a which has secured to its face a gear a*, which latter drives gear a secured to cam shaft Z), carrying fixed thereto a collar 0 to which is secured adjustably by the slots and bolts 0, c, a cam c having a cam groove 0* in its side face. This groove receives a roller 0' which turns on a pin 0 fixed in the bar 0 which is forked at 0" and is thereby guided on the cam shaft 6. The bar 0 has a tubular extension or sleeve 0 slotted at 0 to receive apin 0 on the rod 0 which is slidable within the sleeve 0 to an extent as permitted by the slot and pin. A collar 0 rests against the pin 0 and a spring 0* has one end bearing on the collar and its other end bears on the shoulder of the bar 0 The rod 0 is pivotally connected or jointed to the upper end of a pivoted arm c fixed to the rock shaft 0 suitably journaled on the frame, said rock shaft having at its opposite end, 2'. e. at the opposite side of the machine an arm similar to that shown at 0 From these arms 0 links 0 (only one being shown) extend to and are pivotally connected at 0" to arms 16 pivoted at 16 to the frame and at their free ends the arms 16 afford hearings in which the upper stripping roll is journaled. By this cam mechanism and the described connections the upper roll is lifted to allow the gripper bars to pass through and thereafter the cam mechanism will lower the upper roll. This upper roll however is yieldable upwardly, this being permitted by the pin and slot connection at 0 0 the spring 0 yielding for this purpose.

This cam mechanism effects the separation and closing of the stripping rolls, with a minimum expenditure of power, the carrier chain is relieved from strain in this action and there is no striking together or impact of parts in effecting the separating action and shock and jar are eliminated.

The gearing is of course timed to operate the arms 16* in the proper relation to the arrival of the gripper bars at the stripping rolls.

Turn buckles are arranged at 0 for adj ustinent.

While I have shown this mechanism in connection with a single stripping roll and that the upper one, I do not limit myself in this respect.

It will be noticed that the table 28 inclines downwardly toward the lower part of the stop 29, so that the leaves when placed on the table and against the stop will have their butt ends in a lower plane than the body portion and top of the leaf resting on the table, and the lower gripper bar will thus have a more certain action in lifting the leaf at its butt than would be the case were the leaf horizontally disposed at the outset I claim 1. In combination in a tobacco leaf stripping machine. a pair of toothed stripping rolls, one of which is mounted in substantially stationary bearing and the other of which is movable to provide a free passage between them, upper and lower clamping bars for the leaves, upper and lower endless chains for carrying the clamping bars, a stop located at the feeding-in end of the chains and at a point in rear of the path of the lower clamping bars as they rise at said feeding-in end and below the plane of travel of said lower clamping bars on their way to the stripping rolls from said feeding-in end, said stopbeing immovably mounted and a feed table inclining downwardly toward.

and lower rolls having stripping teeth, one.

of said rolls being mounted in substantially fixed bearings, while the other -stripping roll is movably mounted for separation from the fixed 1-011 and gripping bars to grasp the leaf stems with means for carrying said bars betweenthe separated stripping rolls, said gripping bars lying and moving wholly in a plane substantially to one side of the plane of the teeth of the fixed stri iming roller.

3. In a tobacco stripping machine, upper and lower rolls having stripping teeth, one of said rolls being mounted in substantially fixed bearings, while the other stripping roll is mo'vably mounted for separation from the fixed roll and gripping bars to grasp the leaf stems with means for carrying said bars between the separated stripping rolls, said gripping bars lying and moving wholly in a plane substantially to one side of the plane of the teeth of the fixed stripping roller and presenting the leaf substantially in said latter plane. I l p Y 4. In combination in a tobacco stripping machine, upper and lower stripping rolls having teeth, gripping bars with means for drawing them between the stripping rolls. the lower roll being mounted in fixed bearings and the upper roll being movable to provide space for the passage of the gripping bars, said gripper bars lying and mow ing wholly in a plane above the path of the lower roll teeth and presenting the leaves to said teeth, substantially as described.

5. In combination in a tobacco stripping machine, upper and lower stripping rolls having teeth, one of said rolls being mounted in substantially fixed bearings and the other of said rolls being bodily movable to provide space for the passage of gripper bars, and gripper bars having their gripping faces extending from substantially the plane of rectilinear movement of the leaf and the plane of the teeth of the fixed roll to a pointoif to one side of said plane, the main body of the bars being located substantially on said off side substantially as describer.

6. In combination in a tobacco stripping machine, upper and lower stripping rolls having teeth, one being in substantially fixed bearings and the other being bodily movable to provide space between them, gripping bars movable through the said space and having their gripping faces inclined away from substantially the plane of movement of the leaf and the teeth of the fixed roll, the mainbody of the bars being located on the same side of said plane with the inclined gripping faces to avoid damaging contact with the teeth of the fixed roll, substantially as described.

7. In. a tobacco stripping machine, upper and lower stripping rolls having stripping teeth, gripper bars movable between the stripping rolls to convey the tobacco leaves jscribed.

through the said rolls for stripping, means for opening and closing the rollstheupper roll being set in advance of the lower roll, substantially as described.

8. In combination th upper andwlfower slripping rolls, gripper bars for the leaves, the lower-stripping roll being mounted in fixed bearings, and the upper roll being mounted in movable bearings, means for moving the upper roll to and from the lower roll. said roll being set in advance of the lower stripping roll, substantially as 'de scribed.

9. In combination in a tobacco stripping machine, stripping rolls, gripper bars for conveying the tobacco leaves between the stripping rolls, said gripper bars comprising upper and lower members to grip the leaf stems between them, said leaf stems emerg ing from between the bars substantially in the plane of the lower face ofthe lower bar, substantially as described.

10. In combination stripping rolls, one above the other, the lower one of which is fixed and the upper one movable for separatingfrom the lower roll, gripper bars for conveying the'leaves between the stripping rolls, said bars being located in a plane above the stripping surface of the lower roll and comprising upper and lower members for gripping the leaf stems between them, the said stems emerging from between the bars n the plane of the lower face thereof, substantially as described.

11. In combination upper and lower strip ping rolls, means for separating and closing the rolls, and gripper bars for holding the stems between them comprising upper and lower members, the opening between the said bars from. which the stems emerge being in the plane of the lower face of the bars, substantially as described.

12-. In combination upper and lower stripping rolls, ripper bars, composed of upper and lower members, the upper member reaching in advance of the lower member and leaving an opening substantially in the planev of the lower face of the lower member, substantially as described. I

In combination upper and lower stripping rolls, means for opening antbclosing lower face of the upper member which overhangs said trailing edge from which opening the leaf stems emerge, substantially as de- H. In combination upperand lower stripping rolls, gripper bars, endless carriers for the gripper bars, and means for positively opening and positively closing the rolls consisting of a power operated cam with connections extending therefrom for eifecting both the opening and closing movements, said cam and its connections being arranged and operated independent of the endless carriers for the gripper bars, substantially as described.

15. In combination upper and lower stripping rolls, gripper bars for the leaves, enclless carriers for the gripper bars, a power cam means having connections intermediate the same and the rolls for effecting both the positive opening and the positive closing of the stripping rolls, said intermediate connections including a yielding portion to allow the rolls when closed to yield, said cam and its connection being arranged and operated independent of the endless carrier for the gripper bars, substantially as described.

16. In combination upper and lower stripping rolls, pivotally mounted arms or brackets carrying one of the stripping rolls, connections leading off from the said arms and means for operating said connections to swing said arms and thereby open and close the stripping rolls, substantially as described.

17. In combination upper and lower stripping rolls, pivotally mounted arms or brackets carrying the upper stripping roll, connections leading off from the said pivoted arms and means for operating said connections to thereby positively open and positively close the stripping rolls, said means consisting of a rotary cam mounted at a fixed point on the frame and means for driving the said cam, substantially as described.

18. In combination stripping rolls, pivoted arms in which the upper roll is mounted, links extending from said arms, a shaft, arms thereon to which the links are connected and rotary cam means connected with one of the arms for operating the same to move the upper stripping roll and yielding means forming a part of the connection to allow the upper stripping roll to yield, substantially as described.

19. In combination stripping rolls, gripper bars, endless carriers for moving said bars to carry them between the stripping rolls, and means for positively opening and for positively closing said rolls and power transmitting means other than the endless carriers for operating said opening and closing means, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature.

FREDERICK O. SOHOFIELD.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Iatents,

Washington, D. G. 

